


Fake plastic Human

by LenoraLana



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Jericho - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-12
Updated: 2019-08-12
Packaged: 2020-08-20 01:46:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20219749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LenoraLana/pseuds/LenoraLana
Summary: Kara is devastated to realize that Alice isn't the human little girl she thought. What will she do?





	Fake plastic Human

Kara’s internal processor couldn’t even begin to identify the swarm of emotions that surged within her now. She spent a full sixty seconds staring at that android child, eyes locked with a being who was identical in every way except for that LED that Todd had presumably removed from Alice’s temple.

The words of the mysterious female android had drifted in and out of her consciousness, even if Kara’s mind had recorded them. The only thing that registered, for the moment, was the shocking revelation just in front of her and the eyes that were like black clouds, speaking words of wisdom from the shadows before slipping back out of sight.

Kara didn’t even bother to turn around, nor did she try to pinpoint where the mysterious android speaker had gone. No one but Kara herself, at this very moment, could understand how much her entire purpose had changed… become threatened, really… by this shocking reveal.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” the android girl in front of her asked. Kara had to resist a shiver. Everything about the pitch, tone, texture and quality of the voice were perfect, identical to Alice. 

Kara opened her mouth, trying to say something, anything. She worked her tongue a little inside her mouth to increase the slight, natural lubrication that enhanced the illusion she was human, plus it helped with her speaking abilities. She found that her mouth had gone completely dry, rendering her tongue useless.

She wrapped her arms loosely around herself and proceeded toward Alice, who sat atop a box with her knees drawn up near her chest. The girl seemed oblivious to everything going on around her.

Inching closer, Kara continued to stare at __her__ Alice. 

Alice… her special and precious Alice… was a robot. 

How many of them were there? Thousands? Tens of thousands? 

__She loves you more than anything,__ the black-cloud-eyed female android’s voice drifted through her processor again. __You needed a little girl to love. She needed a mother… __

Did it truly make a difference?

Yes, Kara had to admit, it did.

Deep down, she supposed she had dreamed of what it would be like once she had finally reached safety with the human girl. They would have found a way to send her to school, get her new clothes, and Kara would find a job so she could afford to get Alice nice things to eat. Kara would have watched Alice grow up big and strong, eventually into a young woman. It had been a wonderful dream, to think about the person that the girl would one day grow into.

Now… Kara knew that would never happen. Androids didn’t eat, they didn’t grow, they didn’t age at all. Alice was merely a copy, one of many designed to emulate the human desire to have something easy to deal with, something that would also last forever.

Although Kara wouldn’t think about it too deeply until much later, it was also possible that this notion struck a blow to her own identity and self-worth. Was taking care of Alice--__human__ Alice--something that made Kara feel like she had a purpose? Something that made her unique, that set her apart from other androids just like her and made her more than just a maid to clean up messes?

While Alice had been human, there had been a keen sense of purpose and responsibility. Make sure the girl stayed warm, had a suitable bed at night, dry clothes and that she was at least offered food. 

Now… the only thing that sat before Kara was a copy. Something that was… what, less real? Maybe. In a strange way, perhaps it even made Kara herself feel less real. 

“Kara?” 

Alice had finally noticed her presence. Kara pressed her lips into a thin line and stepped closer, easing herself into a sitting position on the box next to the girl.

“Is something wrong, Kara?”

Kara found that she still couldn’t speak. The additional moisture in her eyes made her realize she was fighting back tears. She squeezed her eyes shut and looked away, unable to face the girl.

She sensed the girl get up and slowly move away, wandering off in some random direction, probably with no real destination in mind. The girl couldn’t really go far at this point anyway.

Kara was still too wrapped up in her own, inner turmoil and borderline identity crisis. Why did this make her feel so… cheated, somehow? It seemed as though her entire existence had been cheapened. 

Did she really think of herself as less than the humans? Did looking after a human girl who loved her and depended on her make her feel elevated?

Somehow, having a human girl love her unconditionally and depend on her “despite” Kara herself being an android did make a significant difference. It made her feel like she was something more, something that meant the world to even just one human being.

But looking after an android “child”? It was just another plaything designed by humans. 

Todd had surrounded himself with playthings, in lieu of his perfectly human wife running off, apparently. He wanted household members who just had to endure him and, ideally, couldn’t run away.

Kara and Alice had gotten away anyway… but to what end?

Would it really matter anymore, if Kara simply got up and walked away? She herself was just a hunk of plastic, wires and mechanical parts designed to do things that humans didn’t want to do. Alice was built and designed to be small forever and have an eternal, childlike innocence.

What good would it do to try and “raise” a “child” who would never grow up? It cheated everyone around the child of the chance to see who the child would one day become.

Unless maybe… some humans just wanted to stagnate and remain in a fantasy where, every single day, they could have the illusion of sharing a home with the same young girl… even while they themselves got older or even deteriorated.

Clearly not all humans were bad; Rose was one of the rare exceptions whom Alice had encountered thus far. But… it would seem that many humans just wanted machines to do things for them or even fulfil whatever need or fantasy they wanted fulfilled.

Humans were such… selfish, empty creatures… and it was so cruel of them to do something that would leave Kara herself feeling emptier than she had ever felt before.

She had seen and heard things on the news about humans fighting against androids, rounding them up, slaughtering them… and some androids were starting to fight back. She had wanted no part of that; she simply wasn’t a fighter, nor did she have any ambitions. Her entire objective had been simply to protect Alice and take care of her for as long as Alice needed her. The rest of the world could burn in a fiery pit for all she cared, as long as she and Alice could have found their niche where they could be safe, left alone, and allowed to live however they chose in peace.

Now… everything had changed.

Kara realized she could continue thinking in circles like this forever. Perhaps her processor had formed a feedback loop, due to the shock of the revelation. 

__You knew all along, didn’t you?__ She thought to herself. A single tear finally escaped her eye and streaked down her face. 

A flash of the magazine went through her processor, as though she were seeing it again right before her eyes. Yes, she had mildly suspected something back then… but she had dismissed it. Alice simply __couldn’t__ have been an android, she was… just a human little girl. She had to be.

__She just __**_**_can’t_**_**__ be a plastic plaything made by humans,__ Kara thought bitterly, clamping a hand over her mouth. 

What would the plan be now? Try to get to Canada just to live an emulation of a human family? Is that all it had been all along?

Perhaps it was just as well that Luthur had died at the hands of that police officer back at Rose’s place. The entire “family” dynamic would have shifted anyway, with this knowledge.

A loud explosion emanated throughout the structure, causing her to stand up straight. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that Jericho, the supposed safe-haven for androids, was under attack. At least __something __ was happening.

Humans created androids, and… just as Todd couldn’t leave well enough alone after their escape, it seemed that the majority of other humans just couldn’t, either.

Kara took a moment to glance about, biting her lower lip. The fake child she had dragged around with her and painstakingly cared for since leaving Todd’s house was nowhere in sight… did she really want to go look for it at this point?

Was it really any different from the identical child she had seen a few minutes ago? Was there any android in this place she would want to stick her neck out for anymore, at this point?

__Humans are selfish.__

They created androids for selfish reasons, now they wanted androids destroyed.

Kara felt almost like she did when she had originally broken through her programming wall back in Todd’s place. Perhaps she was fighting with herself now, her own modified/upgraded directives.

Was it possible that… she really was just a defective machine?

Was there anything wrong with her being selfish too, especially at this point?

Humans didn’t care about her. Most of them wanted her destroyed, and they had played the cruelest joke on her imaginable by making her think she had a human child who loved her… that a human could love her at all… when she was really nothing.

__Rose cared,__ something deep inside of her shouted at that instant, but she bit her lower lip and ignored it.

It turned out that she was good at ignoring things she didn’t want to deal with at the moment.

_ _For all I know, maybe Rose was just an android too…_ _

Kara detected an increase in her own software instability, just as the floor beneath her trembled slightly. She could hear gunfire in the distance.

__I’m getting out of here,__ she decided, already moving to find the nearest exit.

Leave the humans and the androids to duke it out on their own, leave them to whatever fate would dish to them. Leave the fake Alice-child to whatever happened, she was beyond caring right now. 

She was just going to save her own fake android skin, and then… she would sort out the rest later once she could think clearly.


End file.
